San Lorenzo have thrown the towel in on their bid to sign Fabricio Coloccini.

The Argentine club were hoping to take the Newcastle United central defender back to Buenos Aires and had even turned to rich backers to try to make the deal happen.

But even though Coloccini confessed a desire to leave the Magpies for personal reasons, his move has fallen through because San Lorenzo could not raise the required funds to make the deal happen.

The defender's representatives had flown to Tyneside to thrash the deal out but a short statement on San Lorenzo's official Twitter site said: "Finally, after long negotiations, we announce that Coloccini will not join the squad."